4 Ways to Learn to Love Fanfiction

Many people say they dislike fanfiction. But, often, that's because first fan-written stories they happened upon were of poor quality, and they assumed the same must hold true for the rest. However, the world of fanfiction is filled with well-written, entertaining, and engaging stories. You just have to know how to find them.

1. If you've just started reading fanfiction, don't go to a big archive like Fanfiction.Net and read the first story you see. For every great work of fanfiction out there, there can be dozens of bad ones. And starting out by reading bad fanfiction is often what makes people decide they dislike fanfiction in the first place.

2. Recommendations are a great way to find good fanfiction. There are fans who read just about every work of fanfiction written, good or bad, about their favorite television shows and movies. And they often put together lists to steer other fans towards the better fan-written stories in that fandom.

To find fanfiction recommendations, go to a message board devoted to the fandom (television show, movie, book, etc.) you are interested in. Find a message boards that has a discussion or thread where members can recommend their favorite fanfic.

You can also ask where you can find recs lists for that fandom.

3. Find the kinds of stories you'd be most interested in at a "story finders" blog. At LiveJournal, you can find "story finder" communities for most fandoms. These are communities where you can request really good stories that meet your specific criteria. For example, you could ask for really good X-Files stories that show Mulder and Scully investigating a case much like they did on the show, and members of the community will steer you towards stories of that type.

You can find a "story finder" community for a fandom either by asking at a message board for that fandom, or by searching LiveJournal.

4. You can find good fanfiction using fanfiction awards sites. Just about every fandom has competitions in which fans vote on the best fanfiction in that fandom by category. (For example, Best Romance Story, Best Humorous Story, Best Crossover Story, Best Story That's Like an Episode, Best Overall Story, etc.) The stories that win, or even place, in these competitions, are often very good.

To find an awards site for your favorite fandom, you can ask at a message board. Or you can use a search engine. For example, if you are looking for good CSI stories, you can type, "CSI Fanfiction Awards" into the search box.